Friday Forward: Worlds of Ink and Shadow, by Lena Coakley, AND A GIVEAWAY!!

Once upon a time, many moons ago, a budding novelist (that's me) sat in a critique group at a writers' conference in Niagara Falls and listened to a passage that left her feeling awed, slightly inadequate, and a weeny bit jealous.

That the passage was one which was put forward for critique, and therefore considered by its author to be somehow lacking or Not Quite Right, left the budding novelist feeling even more inadequate and jealous. But mostly, awed.

The author of said passage was Lena Coakley, and the passage - which did not quite make it into the final draft - was a magical beginning, that grew into an even more magical book: Worlds of Ink and Shadow.

Look at all the Pretties...

I have been waiting so long for this book to be born. I am so excited to have finally gotten it into my hot little hands.

SCORE.

Worlds of Ink and Shadow is an historical fantasy that, as anyone familiar with Coakley's previous novel Witchlanders would expect, accomplishes many things at once. At its surface, serves as an origin story of the Bronte family, and a most magical and mysterious one at that. Coakley makes every one of the four siblings - Charlotte, Branwell, Emily, and Anne - live and breathe and shine in this novel that takes each of their points of view in turn. The way she seamlessly slips from one point of view to the next, always showing exactly what the reader needs to see, is masterful. Additionally, the blending of fantasy with reality - the way in which a tale about siblings who can cross over into their invented worlds is interwoven with the tale of four siblings who achieved literary greatness in our world - is a literary accomplishment worthy of the Brontes themselves.

But this novel is so much more than that. As Coakley weaves the story of the literary beginnings of this famous family, she also spins the story of every author, capturing the simultaneous joy and anguish of creating entire worlds, the fervent wish that those worlds could be real coupled with the great burden of being a God in those worlds, of being responsible for the lives and deaths of so many. All authors know the grief that accompanies the death of a beloved character, the weight that every decision about a character carries, the worry that if one does not get it absolutely right, then the author is doing her characters - and her story - a great disservice. Coakley allows Charlotte and Emily and Branwell to carry this burden, and thus shares with the reader something of what it is to create story. For writers like me, it is a work of great empathy. For everyone else, it is the final fleshing out that makes this story of the Brontes truly complete.

This is a masterwork. It was so worth the wait, and I cannot wait to read it again.

And because I am lucky enough to know Lena, and to have been to her launch party (which featured tea and scones and bonnets and a reading of the funniest scene in an historical fantasy ever), I have a treat for you.

I got an extra copy. An extra signed copy.

OOOOOOH.

You want this. Trust me.

To enter, simply comment with your name and email address, and tell me which Bronte sibling is your favorite. (Your email address is important, since it's the only way I will have of contacting you if you win.)

One extra entry per share on Facebook or Twitter or Tumblr - link to your share in the comment, so I can see it, or if you tweet about it, put my handle @IshtaWrites in the tweet.

I will close the giveaway and draw a random entry at MIDNIGHT on the night of FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5TH, 2016. MIDNIGHT on the night of FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12TH, 2016.*

Open in the USA and Canada only. (Sorry, but shipping to Europe and beyond is EXPENSIVE, and the life of a writer is a hungry one. Just ask the Brontes.)

Good Luck!

*This week, I was taken hostage by alien invaders, and was unable to promote this giveaway the way it deserved to be promoted. So now that the invaders have released me, I've extended the deadline.

Holy Acknowledgement Surprise, Batman!

This week has been a tough one for me - getting up at 6am is taking its toll, and I slept through my alarm more often than not. I've loved my productive mornings, but making myself into a morning person when the sun doesn't rise for another two-to-three hours and it's cold (and dark and cold and AAGH and did I mention cold?) is hard work for me. I'm still enthusiastic about my projects, but I'm struggling to find the enthusiasm at 6 o'clock in the morning. Plus, there's Life Stuff, which I'm not going to get into.

And then I sat down to read a friend's book*, and got curious about who her editor is (because the book is awesome), and when I turned to the acknowledgements I saw this:

Holy patooties, fruities!

And then I jumped around like a maniac, because my name is in the acknowledgement section of someone's book, OH YEAH!!!!

Here's the thing about writing books.

It's hard. You're all alone, and you know it probably sucks, and you're struggling to fix it, and you don't know if you're making it better or worse. You finally get it to where you think it's shining like a shiny thing, and 99% of the industry people you send it to tell you that thanks, but they'll pass. It's HARD. And that's the way it has to be, because quality matters, but knowing that doesn't make it any easier. (It makes you more able to be a grown-up about it, though, which is important. Be a grown-up.)

And then you see your name in the acknowledgement section of a friend's book, and you remember that night months and months ago when you answered an email with exactly the right questions, and you remember what it was like to read those early pages, those treasured secret words, filled with hope and possibility.

You remember that you have allies. You remember that you are an ally to other people.

And you feel so freaking lucky to be able to participate in the magic of creating stories for young people.

I am so grateful that I get to do this. I work with some of the most awesome people in the world. We make magic together.

What made you feel lucky this week?

*The book is A POCKET FULL OF MURDER, by R.J. Anderson, and it is delightful. Perfect for the magic-and-mystery-loving 8-12 year-old in your life.

Accountability Count: Don't even ask when I got up; Worked on WIPs every day, YAY ME I GET COOKIES; language and music are suffering, but have been Filling the Well like crazy, so I feel okay about that. Also, NEW WEBSITE COMING SOON-ISH, watch this space.

Reading: Worlds of Ink and Shadow, by Lena Coakley, which I critiqued an early chapter of years ago and which is AMAZING and #1 on the Globe and Mail Juvenile Bestseller lists, YESYESYESYESYES! More on that next week.

Watching: Jersey Boys and The Good German

Wednesday Writing: Writing Prompt

The other day, Maggie Stiefvater shared this video on her tumblr.





I don't know why she shared it. I don't know what she thinks about it. She shared it completely without context. But I listened to it, and here's what I thought as I listened to it:

I like the tune. Catchy.

Lyrics seem good.

Wait a minute…

Actually, I completely disagree with these lyrics. This guy is lost, a little bit. But I remember feeling this way when I was a teenager and new to relationships and love and All That, and I bet there are kids who feel this way now, and I think one or two or even a bunch of the characters I'm writing about right now feel this way.

There's a story here.

Which I suspect is why she shared the song, actually.

ANYWAY. Writing prompt. Listen to the song. Write a short story about this kid. Post it wherever you post that sort of thing, and link back in the comments if you want. Or just keep it private. :-)

Happy Writing.

Accountability Count: Slept half an hour longer than I intended today, but have written or revised for an hour or more every single day. Feeling pretty proud of that.

Reading: Chinese Myths and Fantasies, edited by Cyril Birch; The Enchanted Files: Diary of a Mad Brownie, by Bruce Coville
Watching: The Avengers: Age of Ultron, about which I have much to say.

Goodbye, Starman

Today has been one of those days. The American Library Association made history by announcing that a picture book, LAST STOP ON MARKET STREET, had both won the Newbery and garnered a Caldecott Honor, and it was announced that David Bowie had passed away.

Stars were born, and a star died.

It happens every day, but I'm feeling it keenly on this cold January afternoon.

Taken at the "David Bowie Is…" exhibit at the AGO.

I can't remember the first time I heard a David Bowie track. I can't remember which track it was. It feels like he's always been there.

But I do remember a girl I used to look after. She lived in a house in Kentish Town, and she was eleven, and she was the biggest David Bowie freak I had ever met. She would dress up like him after school and belt out Life on Mars as if she had written it herself, and it was wonderful. Through his music and his artistry and weirdness and his sheer force of personality, he gave her a bit of his stardust. He gave a bit of it to all of us.

Goodbye, Starman.

Accountability Count: Up at 6 every day, except when I slept through my alarm this morning; one hour of writing or revision done every day; music done every other day; language not done at all, ACK; blogging done and edited, but password forgotten so can't post, DOUBLE ACK; social media time seems to be under control THANK HEAVEN FOR SMALL MIRACLES.

Reading: THE NEST, by Kenneth Oppel, illustrated by Jon Klassen

Watching: LABYRINTH. Of course.

New Year, New Rules

Morning motivation from my office.

I like that quote. It says so much about life: that if you want something, I mean really, REALLY want something, you've got to do the work to get it. And getting the thing and doing the work are basically the same thing.

So.

I decided I needed to set myself some rules for getting this thing that I want - publication with a major house, on a consistent basis, from now until forever.

New year, new rules.

The rules apply every day, even on Christmas. They are called Rules for a reason, folks.

Here are The Rules:

- up at 6am; NO EXCEPTIONS (I'm not gonna lie: this one sucks for me. I am SO not a morning person. But, hours! In a day! Limited! So, new wake-up time. I'll get used to it.)

- minimum one hour writing time; NO EXCEPTIONS (Also, blogging does not count as "writing time.")

- blogging once per week (I'm doing it now! YAY!)

- vlogging once per week (Vlogs will be mirrored here on the blog, to keep the blog ticking over more often than once weekly.)

- half an hour per day on a language (This is nothing to do with writing and everything to do with me wanting to be more Me and less Mom/Spouse/Homeschooler/Vegetable Grower/etc. Also, Spy. I want to be more Spy.)

- half an hour per day on an instrument (Same deal as the language thing.)

- one hour per day consuming media (Reading, critical TV or film watching, etc. You've gotta fill the well, folks.)

- social media for half an hour before 9am, and during The Kidlets' piano practice (Blogging counts!)

- accountability on the blog

That last one is important. I can't tell you how many times I've made a promise to myself, only to break it within a few weeks. It might not be this way for everybody, but for me, accountability is vital. It's what makes me ACTUALLY do what I say I'm going to do. So every time I post here, I'm going to tell you how I'm doing at the end of the post.

I guess you could call these resolutions, except that none of them are Great, Grand Plans or anything. They're just little changes I'm making to my day, every day. We'll see if it makes a difference.

How about you?

Accountability Count: Up today at 6am; Twitter, FB, and blogging done, cut off at 1/2 an hour; blog for the week done. And its only 8am! WOO-HOO!

Currently reading: THE MARVELS, by Brian Selznick. Halfway through, I give it an A+.

Currently watching: Wonderfalls.

In the Mail!

FIRST: I've been having some problems with the internet at my house. Something caused a short in the phone wires, so the landline and internet went *poof* for a week. But we had a VERY nice man named Scott from Expenet Communications* in to fix it this morning, and he did an amazing job, so the blog is back in business.

I answered a knock at the door the week before last, and GUESS WHAT THE POSTMAN HAD FOR ME!

A box from your publisher can only mean one thing...

IT’S REAL!

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG...

Of course, I had to spend some time playing with different ways to stack them up.

Swirly spiral style...

All stacked up!

My publisher told me that BITE INTO BLOODSUCKERS will be available in September. That’s THIS MONTH!! Aaaaaaah!

To celebrate the release of my FIRST BOOK (!!), I’ll be holding a fun contest and giveaway, so watch this space!

Meanwhile, I’m going to go back to stroking that gorgeous** cover…

Me and My Book!
Photo taken by Kristi Penny

How is your week going?

*Scott Hinchcliffe is a miracle worker who is very nice, very fair, and who likes to talk politics. In other words, he is my kind of telephone repair person. If you live in the GTA and you have phone issues, you should call him.

**Gorgeous is relative. I have argued on this blog that mosquitoes are gross, and even that the very photo of a mosquito that graces this cover is gross. But at this point, any cover with my name on it is a gorgeous cover.

Weighing In on the NEW New York Times Bestseller Lists

It probably isn’t news to anyone reading this that the NYT Children’s Bestseller Lists are changing again, but in case it IS news, you can read the original announcement here, and then come back once you’re done.

Now that we’re all caught up: what does this mean?

Honestly, I don’t know if it means anything. That is, it doesn’t mean anything to ME, except that maybe one day my book will have a better chance of making it onto the list than it did under the old system, which means my future publishers and I have marginally better odds of being able to put New York Times Bestseller across the top of the cover. (We’re talking TINY margins of improvement. Like, really, not much. Like, out of the 5,700-and-some-odd books published and the many thousands of books continuing to be sold every week, only ten will make it onto that list, so SMALL SMALL ODDS.)

But I honestly don’t know if it means anything beyond that.

Some people are excited about the changes because having a list for (usually new) hardcover titles and a separate list for (usually backlisted) paperbacks means more discoverability for newer titles... But we’re talking about a list of ten titles. The range for discoverability is still pretty small. As discoverability tools go, the NYT Bestselling Children's Books List has always been, and always will be, an inadequate tool. Additionally, I don’t see very much time passing before publishing catches on to the fact that re-issuing backlisted titles  with strong sales as “special edition hardcovers” can get that same title listed on TWO NYT lists, which just puts us back where we are now with one or two names dominating both lists instead of just the one list.

And if we’re talking about the NYT list as merely a status report - as a reporting of facts, specifically the facts about which books are currently selling the most copies in any given week - then what this does is give us an idea of which new books are doing really well in their first few weeks after release. Which is nice to know, I guess, if you want to write to trends, which we all know is a bad idea.* It’s also nice to know which books have staying power. If publishers are marketing the bejeezus out of their new hardcover titles and someone’s paperbacks from five years ago are still outselling them, that says something about the quality of those old books, and maybe also about the public temperature in terms of the willingness of the general public to explore new and untested waters vs clinging to the familiar and comfortable. And there is something to be learned from that. (This is something we lose with the new switch - the ability to compare sales of new books with sales of older titles.)

The NYT List is also good for marketing purposes, in a “let’s examine this after the fact” kind of way. If there are more than ten awesome books coming out that week,** but only ten make it onto the list, it can be helpful to look at those ten and then look at what their authors and publishers and PR people did to market those books that the authors and publishers and PR people maybe didn’t do for the awesome books out there that DIDN’T make it onto the list. There are ALL KINDS of factors in what makes a book a blowout success, from cover design to advertising to book tours to blurbs to ALL THE OTHER THINGS. There is the factor of the author’s authorial history - did their debut win a big award? Did an earlier title come out this weekend as a film adaptation? Is this the third in an already best-selling series? 

This stuff makes a difference. It sucks a little that it makes a difference, because a) none of it has anything to do with the actual words inside the actual book, and b) apart from author-initiated marketing, pretty much all of it is outside the author’s control. But nevertheless, for better or worse, it makes a difference. Having a book on the NYT Bestseller List is an incredible achievement, and all the books on that list deserve to be there - but so do some books that never get there, and that’s just math. There are ten slots each week. There are a lot more than ten books coming out each week. You can’t control that.

And that’s the thing. There is only one thing that you, the author, can control. One. You can write an awesome book. You can write a book that is so awesome, people will press it into the hands of everyone they know. You can write a book that is so awesome, people will write fan fiction about it, because they can’t let go of those characters. You can write a book that is so awesome, people will wait in line overnight to be the first to read the next one.

So forget about the New York Times Bestseller List. Just write your book. Make it amazingly good. Pick the right words, and put them in the right order, and make it irresistible. If your book is irresistible, you won’t have to worry about the NYT Bestseller List, because people will buy your irresistible book.

And that’s what it’s about.

*NEWSFLASH: In case you’re new to the writing-for-publication scene and you haven’t come across this information yet, writing to trends is a very bad idea. By the time you recognize a trend, it’s too late for your book to ride that wave, because by the time you draft it and revise it and revise it and the publisher gets a cover designed and all the rest, the trend will be over. Just write the book that you need to write, and write it now.

**There are ALWAYS more than ten awesome books coming out in any given week. There isn't enough money in the world to buy all the awesome books every week. Unless you're Donald Trump, in which case you're too busy spending money on… Other things. Which is a shame, if you ask me, but nobody is asking me.